Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For [he’s giving us the reason now], you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
1 Peter 1:17-19 (NIV)
How do you fill up an “empty way of life”? Peter says that you can’t do it with a new Lexus or a Harley Davidson. Well, he doesn’t actually say, “Harley Davidson,” but he does say, “perishable things such as silver or gold.”
It is possible to have a dream job, the best marriage, great kids, and a growing feeling of emptiness inside. How? Because nothing in this world can bring you into the full life God wants for you.
That’s why Peter says, “Live your lives as strangers.” The world thinks that we have life now, and whatever exists after we die is only a shadow. The Christian knows that what we have now is only a shadow, and after we die we enter into life.
If you start packing to go on a mission trip to a third-world country, you will ask yourself, What do I need? You don’t belong there. You’re just passing through. You are a stranger to that country. This is how we are to view our whole life in this world! Nothing in this world is an end in itself. Every good gift God gives to you is a means to an end—the glory of God.
Are you living for the things of this world or receiving them as gifts from God?
